Noida land scam: UP Govt asked to file counter affidavit on PIL

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday gave the Uttar Pradesh government two weeks time to file a counter affidavit on a PIL seeking dismissal of Principal secretary (appointment) Rajiv Kumar, who was convicted by a CBI court in the Noida plot allotment scam.

The order was passed by the bench of Justices Uma Nath Singh and Virendra Kumar Dixit on the public interest litigation(PIL) filed by senior journalist Sanjay Sharma.

On behalf of the state government, an order of the High Court was submitted in its Lucknow bench regarding suspension of Kumar`s conviction.

In his PIL, Sharma had alleged that the IAS officer was sentenced to three years imprisonment by a speical CBI court in Noida plot allotment scam along with retired IAS Neera Yadav and should be dismissed on the ground that a convict cannot be permitted to continue to hold a public office.

He said that the officer should be dismissed from service during pendency of the criminal appeal filed by him against his conviction and sentence awarded by special judge CBI on Nov 21, 2012.

The CBI special judge S Lal had awarded three year sentence to Rajeev and Yadav and imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each.

It was alleged that Yadav entered in a criminal conspiracy with 1983-batch IAS officer Rajiv Kumar, the then Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Noida to change the land use of a plot which was earmarked for a guest house and also increased its area in violation of norms.